Bob Greene is out with Late Edition: A Love Story, which chronicles his early days in Ohio at The Columbus Dispatch and the now-defunct Columbus Citizen-Journal.

By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY

Author Bob Greene, 62, began his career at a small newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, in 1964. He reminisces in Late Edition: A Love Story (St. Martin's Press, 306 pp., $25.99). He spoke with USA TODAY's Craig Wilson.

1. There actually used to be noise in a newsroom? The great noise of the typewriters and the UPI machines was overridden by the sound of laughter. The laughter is the sound I remember most.

2. You started out as a copyboy. What was your pay? I think it was $58.50 take-home every week. I think got extra for working nights.

3. Your first story ever? Golf ball fights back! I was assigned to write up the emergency (room) runs, and a guy had been cutting open a golf ball, and it exploded. When it appeared in the paper, it was the most wonderful morning of my life.

4. Are newspaper people unemployable in mainstream society? Better hope not today. Back then, the wonderful thing about a newsroom was the collection of misfits. I never felt I fit in more in my whole life. I found home.

5. Do you think heaven could really be an old-fashioned newsroom? I hadn't thought of that. It sure was heavenly. I don't know if heaven is a city room, but it sure felt like it.

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